Previews

X-Men: The Official Movie Game

The world's most famous team of mutants is back for another battle, but not everyone made the cut.

Spiffy:

Levels are designed with particular heroes in mind; Iceman's sliding is fast and fun; Nightcrawler finally comes alive!

Iffy:

Your favorite mutant may not have made the cut; graphics could use some polish; how will the story be?

As one of comicdom's longest running series, it's not surprising that the X-Men have made appearances everywhere from movies to TV to, naturally, video games. For the most part, the whole team (in one of its many combinations) appears, save for a few solo endeavors here and there. It's a bit surprising, given the fact that many of the characters have similar powers. Colossus and Wolverine both perform melee attacks, Professor X and Jean Grey are the telepaths, and Beast and Nightcrawler use their acrobatic skills to take out their foes. It was for this reason that we were happy to see the direction that the latest X-Men game, titled X-Men: The Official Movie Game, is taking.

Although Z-Axis is still keeping the game's story under wraps, fans of the comic will be happy to hear that it's being penned by Chris Claremont. A longtime X-Men writer, Claremont was brought in to ensure the game fit comfortably into the universe created by the comic books and the movies. We saw elements of both, from the presence of the evil HYDRA group to the black leather costumes that the heroes sported in the films. The producers also told us that the game would act as a bridge of sorts between the second and third movies. They worked closely with director Zack Penn to ensure everything fit perfectly with the upcoming film, and they actually used the game to explain some of the changes that were made to the cinematic series.

Unlike many of the previous X-Men games, which allowed players to control a large number of the mutants, the guys at Z-Axis decided to focus solely on three of the heroes: Nightcrawler, Iceman, and Wolverine (after all, you can't have an X-Men title without everyone's favorite bladed psychopath). While some fans might be disappointed that their personal favorite didn't make the cut, the developers figured that it was better to have three unique characters with fully realized powers than a dozen with just a move or two. All three heroes will be featured in environments that were created specifically to show off their powers, and we were told that Wolverine will have just a few more than the other two.

To kick things off, we checked out one of Wolverine's levels, where he (perhaps unsurprisingly) spent most of the time hacking and slashing his foes to pieces. Many of Wolvie's battles will be against several enemies at once, as was evidenced by the arena-style battle we watched. A seemingly unending stream of foes entered the room, and the battle was gradually made tougher by flaming floor traps and cages that dropped from the ceiling. Most of the action was fairly standard, as was Wolvie's healing ability. While his health slowly went up during combat, retracting the mutant's claws will make it go up much faster. He's also got a "fury mode" that kicks in once you've defeated enough baddies.